Money-Saving Tech Tip: Microsoft Office 365 Home

If you are getting a new PC for Christmas it’s a good idea to consider upgrading your Microsoft Office program, especially if you are using OFFICE 2010 or earlier.

The best deal that I have found for most families, especially those with multiple computers and portable devices, is Microsoft OFFICE 365 HOME.

With the OFFICE 365 HOME edition you get all the major OFFICE programs (or apps) that you used to get with a single–license copy of OFFICE PROFESSIONAL:

Courtesy of Microsoft

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Outlook

Access

Publisher

OneNote

Office 365, in all of its versions, is obtained by an annual subscription of $99.99/year. This includes licenses for FIVE (5) computers, and you can mix Windows (Office 2013) and MAC (Office 2011) versions. I currently have my copy installed on three Windows machines and an Apple Mac Mini!

Compare this to OFFICE PROFESSIONAL’s single-user price of $400 that usually only stays current for 2-3 years.

You can also install Office on 5 mobile devices: Windows tablets/phones and iPads/iPhones (iOS 7 and later). There is also a separate OFFICE app for the ANDROID community!

Courtesy of Microsoft

Office 365 subscribers also get UNLIMITED storage on MICROSOFT’s ONEDRIVE cloud system (your profile will show only 1TB available until you reach about 90% of that amount, then it kicks up to 10TB.). This can be used to store or backup your files, including all those pictures you don’t want to lose! The neat thing is that you can set up multiple computers to access the same ONEDRIVE account and therefore have access to all of your files on multiple computers. For example, it doesn’t matter if I am on my home computer, on my Ministry laptop, the Ministry MAC MINI, my Galaxy TAB, or my iPhone: All of my files are available and are updated automatically across all of the systems!

Don’t want to share? You can configure up to 5 different users, each with their own ONEDRIVE account. That keeps the kids our of YOUR files!!!!

Compare all of this with Google Drive’s and Dropbox’s $9.99/month rates for only 1TB of storage.

Courtesy of Microsoft

You also get 60 minutes on SKYPE…every month!

Finally, you automatically get upgraded to the latest and greatest edition of Office! So, if you are a MAC user, you can install OFFICE 2011, today, and know that the next version, rumored to be available in the 2nd half of 2015, will be there for you as part of the deal!

So, for just $99/year you and your family get all of these OFFICE apps for computers and Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for portable devices, PLUS unlimited online storage, Skype minutes, and automatic upgrades!

You can subscribe through an online signup and download or you can purchase an OFFICE 365 retail package at your local retail store such as Best Buy, Staples, Wal-Mart, and others.